Happy Monday!

I owe you an apology. You haven’t heard from me in two weeks.

My parents were visiting from overseas, and when you only get to see them once a year, you hit pause on a lot of other things. We explored British Columbia’s mountains, wandered Banff and Jasper, and soaked in the summer air. I didn’t want to send a newsletter just to tick a box. I want every one of these to be worth your time.

Now I’m back with weekly lifecycle insights. Same goal we’ve shared since the start: becoming better, more tech-savvy lifecycle marketers. Thank you for your patience.

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s email:

1. How suppression list gaps quietly hurt deliverability and brand trust

2. Five fixes for foolproof unsubscribe handling across all platforms

3. “We miss you” email templates but better, and more quick hits

Today’s read time is ~3 minutes

👉 Click here to let me know you're reading below the fold!

Are you still emailing unsubscribes? Fix your suppression lists today

Deep Dive

That sinking feeling when someone replies to your carefully crafted campaign with:

“I’ve unsubscribed three times already. STOP EMAILING ME!”

It happened to me last quarter. Despite having decent unsubscribe processes, somehow this person was still receiving our newsletters. When I investigated, I discovered our suppression list wasn’t syncing properly between email and our call center.

Not only was this creating angry customers, but it was also putting us at risk for compliance issues and deliverability problems.

If you are not sure whether it is happening in your systems right now, you are not alone. Most marketers only discover suppression failures the hard way.

The hidden damage of suppression failures

When someone unsubscribes but still gets your emails:

• You erode trust. They feel ignored.

• You risk fines. CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CASL require timely unsubscribe handling

• You hurt deliverability. Spam complaints teach inbox providers to distrust your domain.

When we fixed our suppression sync issue, inbox placement improved by 3% almost immediately.

Why unsubscribes fall through the cracks

• Multiple sending platforms: Marketing, transactional, and support emails are not sharing data.

• Delayed syncs: Daily or weekly updates leave a gap for messages to slip through.

• Manual list uploads: Lists skip suppression checks when shared between teams.

• Preference vs. global unsubscribes: Confusion between “no marketing” vs. “no communication at all.”

How many of these can you relate to?

The four suppression lists every marketer needs

• Explicit unsubscribes – Clicked the link or asked to be removed.

• Hard bounces – Permanently undeliverable addresses.

• Spam complainers – Anyone who marked your email as spam.

• Compliance removals – Removed for legal or internal policy reasons.

No rocket science. But most overlook these basic suppressions.

Five fixes for foolproof suppression management

• Create a single source of truth – Pick one system to own suppression data and sync everything to it.

• Implement real-time checks – Use APIs for mission-critical systems to block sends in the moment.

• Standardize list uploads – Always clean lists against suppression before importing.

• Offer preference management – Give subscribers control over topics and frequency.

• Regular reconciliation – Monthly cross-system checks, quarterly spot audits, and instant follow-up on complaints.

Your next step

Run this 15-minute test today: unsubscribe a test email you own, then try sending to it from every platform you use. If it lands, you have found a gap to fix.

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If you found even a tiny bit of value from this email, I’d appreciate sharing it with your team or on LinkedIn. You’ll get access to some Good karma if you do so 😇 

Your referral link: https://www.lifecyclemechanics.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER